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Thursday, November 13, 2014

Well my organized friends, it is about that time again! We just had our first snowfall and I am beginning to see signs of the winter season around every corner. And with Thanksgiving quickly approaching, it means that it is almost time to pull out the stockings and the ribbons and begin preparations for the holiday season.

Megan, my dear friend from Honey We're Home blog, is ahead of the holiday organizing game and well on her way to a very successful year. I am so excited to have her here today to inspire all of us to begin thinking of ways we can make the hustle and bustle of the holidays flow as smoothly as possible. Take it away Megan!

Happy almost holidays friends! Thanks for having me today Jen, I've been blown away lately with your bedroom reveal and all those wonderful DIY money-saving projects. So good! In light of the upcoming holidays, I've got Christmas cards on the brain (we are just ordering ours for this year now), and soon it will be time to address them and get them in the mail, off to our family and friends.

To make the addressing a little more fun (and convenient for moving around), I created a holiday card caddy tray stocked with everything we need to make our mail more festive. Well, everything except stamps. I was waiting to buy holiday-themed stamps and couldn't find any yet. They should be available soon though.

The holiday caddy is made from a bamboo silverware divider ($7.99 at Home Goods) and inexpensive gold handles ($2 from Lowe's). Instead of screwing the handle in (the screws were too long and I didn't know if this bamboo could handle being screwed into), so I used a hot glue gun to glue on the handles. On my first try, they didn't hold. The problem was I didn't put the handles onto the tray fast enough and press and hold long enough (holding very firmly right away for about 30 seconds did the trick).

Then, I used red snowflake packing tape and a festive "Merry Everything" sticker to embellish the tray and make it more holiday-ish. You could also paint it in different holiday colors; that would be cute too.

The fun part is adding all the decorative elements that I like to use to the tray. Makes sending out holiday cards and letters that much more fun.

Using holiday ink stamps is an easy way to decorate your envelopes. I got mine in a multi-pack, so there's lot of designs to choose from. Washi tape is another quick decorative touch I like adding.

Have your ordered or bought your holiday cards yet? My next contributor post won't be until 2015, so I wanted to THANK YOU for having me here at iHeart Organizing and wish y'all a very happy holiday season!

"My
name is Megan and I am a lawyer by day, design and decor lover by
night, and Mama to the sweetest 4-year old boy you've ever seen. I'm
passionate about fitness (and chocolate!) and could not live without my
relationships, girl talk, and my morning coffee. I've been blogging for
four years over at Honey We're Home,
sharing my love of keeping things organized and beautiful at our
house. My efforts to live in the moment and cook more are an adventure
in progress."

What a happy tray! We actually have a bamboo silverware tray for silverware right now. I'll do my best not to steal it from the drawer. :) I'm ahead of things this year and just finished making our Christmas card, addressed the envelopes today and just need to order prints of our family picture to go inside each card. I still need to either make or buy gift tags. I normally make them but saw some extremely cute ones at Ikea. Thanks for the wonderful tray idea!

This is absolutely brilliant and so clever! My usual Christmas card routine is ziplock bag filled with the supplies. This caddy idea is a great way to get organized and a great way to get the job done! Thanks so much for sharing the inspiration!Leslie @ House on the Way

Great idea. I had a minor panic attack looking at the red sharpie on your ottoman. Even if I thought I was being careful, I'd find some way of marking up my ottoman. Glad your ottoman was not harmed in the sharing of this process :)

want to hear a sad story? i am from south africa, and our postal service has been on strike for about three months now. so, we will not be posting anything this year, as it most certainly will not be delivered... but i love your idea though! regards amanda de swardt

Omg what happened to your blog?!?! Lol! Thought I got the wrong one for a moment! It looks great!! Perfect refresh, and just in time for the holiday season -- keep up the good work! :) As far as this tray, very inspiring! It seems I've kind of got things corralled, but they're corralled everywhere. (yikes) So I'm not sure how "well" that works. I might have to try this or something close to it. Very good ideas! I'd be curious for a breakdown of items in there, some look pretty self explanatory, others...just for an added "themie look"?? As always-- thanks much for the project shares!! And love the new look. :)

Hey Megan--what a lovely idea! I just wanted to let you know about the Holiday stamps...I purchased mine a couple months ago at www.USPS.com They have some for the different holidays that are celebrated in December. Plus they are Forever stamps, so in case you don't use all of them this year, you can use them next year!Be Well--The Lady Kay

Oh my goodness, that is beautiful!! And what a fantastic idea, to use a drawer organizer. So easy to find, yet who would have thought! I'm in need of something similar, and will be borrowing your idea!! Your card is adorable as well :)

This is amazing, such a brilliant idea! I'm just starting to pull together my Christmas gift wrap station and I'll definitely be trying to recreate this!! SNOW! I am very jealous, all we have here in London is rain!

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